Traditional casinos – where the action is

This is Lim Kok.

Despite being one letter away from having an extremely unfortunate name  he’s clearly a very happy man (just in case you’re dyslexic that letter is a ‘p’).

He’s happy because he’s the Chairman of Genting Casinos, owner of Resorts World Sentosa – one of Singapore’s two new super casinos. RWS and Marina Bay Sands have been so popular in their first (almost) year of operation that they have turned Singapore into one of the world’s largest casino gaming markets practically overnight.

Not the world’s biggest though. That crown  rests firmly on the head of Macau that is now pretty much in a league of its own.

Here’s a nice little graphical depiction of the world’s casino gaming hot spots and just how big they are – or at least how big they were in 2010.

Macau’s relative size is put into perspective, dwarfing even Las Vegas (Strip) and Atlantic City. The smokey is Singapore (figures here are annualized as Marina Bay and RWS only opened for business in March and April 2010 respectively) with analysts predictions for 2011 between $5.5 and $6.5 billion.